List of Articles on this Website

Click on the word ‘here’, or scroll down the right-hand Panel to my ‘Blog Archive’ and access each post by month:
April 2022
Most Popular Web Design Trends for 2022, click here
November 2020
Search Engine Optimisation for better results, click here
August 2020
Creating a website for your business, click here
July 2019
What is a Favicon, click here
June 2019
Finding free images for commercial use, click here
May 2019
Email addresses for small business, click here
April 2019
Choosing the Best Domain Name, click here
March 2019
Essentials you need for a great website, click here
February 2019
Website design trends for small business, click here
October 2018
The importance of a good website, click here
August 2018
Business Boroondara Network information, click here
Website statistics for small business, click here
Website rebates for design and development, click here
About me, click here

 

Most Popular Web Design Trends for 2022

1. Large Background Images Trend

Stock photos still play a major role in digital communication, whether it’s an e-commerce store, website or blog. People use images to engage more with users and illustrate the message they are trying to send.

One of the big web-design trends this year will be the use of larger images. Many experts believe that larger images are important in attracting potential clients, especially if the website is aimed at selling and marketing products or services. In other words, well placed, large format images increase conversion rates.

Larger images provide you a more riveting visual experience as they give you a clearer idea of what the website may be about.

They can even appeal to your emotions. Having recognised these effects of larger images, it is not really surprising why more and more websites opt to incorporate bigger and attention-grabbing images in their web design.

Why Go for It?

A picture can paint a thousand words; that’s how the saying goes. While this proverb may be old, its truth still rings to this very day. In fact, design experts tell us that visual appearance is powerful in eliciting positive visceral responses.

Science has, likewise, proved that it is 60,000 times faster for the brain to process images compared to reading texts. This means that the kind of images you put in your website has a great impact on its ability to engage users and entice them to buy your products or services.

“Users pay close attention to photos and other images that contain relevant information.” – Nielsen Norman Group

The Nielsen Norman Group eye tracking studies have shown that people generally ignore cheesy and artificial looking photos. Now, users want genuine imagery and real photos should be used to connect with your audience in a genuine way.

Examples of Large Background Images in Web Design

Uber https://www.uber.com/en-AU/

If you check the Uber website, you will be impressed with the large and classy photos they use. If you are not familiar with the services it offers, you may even mistake the photo as an advertisement for high-end apparel or cosmetics. It simply oozes with appeal, style, and drama.

 

Grain & Mortar https://grainandmortar.com/

Natural and real photography resonates with people, instead of using cheesy stock photos. Grain & Mortar used an informal shot of their team that connects with the visitors very well.

 

Brave People http://bravepeople.co/

Brave People uses a slideshow of full-width genuine photo backgrounds that create an impression of a humanistic brand.

 

 

2. Video Background Trend

Websites generally are storytelling tools and storytelling can be more effective when visuals and motion are involved so the ideas and emotions can be transferred to the visitor easier.

We’ve seen businesses implementing video in their websites. This trend will grow even more with the endless possibilities of 3D graphics and HD quality videos to build that impression of real life experience. Research shows an enormous increase in the numbers of video consumption online.

Users prefer content in a visual format, which explains why online content video views have finally topped 50 billion views each month, worldwide.

Examples of Video Backgrounds in Web Design

Airbnb https://www.airbnb.com.au/belong-anywhere

Airbnb takes advantage of beautiful videos in order to complement their ‘Belong Anywhere’ campaign.

 

Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/company/

Bloomberg is a media company whose focus is large amounts of information and breaking news. Their media pages (such As Bloomberg Politics) use video that is activated by hovering your mouse over the content.

 

Bloomberg Media uses video to demonstrate the diversity and capabilities of their work.

 

3. Personal Branding Trend

Personal branding exists whether you focus on it or not. Your identity and your brand (how you are perceived by other people) are very different. The main focus of personal branding is to align vision and mission so you are perceived as you’d like to be.

“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room” – Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon

Examples of Personal Branding in Web Design

Tobias van Schneider http://www.vanschneider.com/

Bold, straightforward and effective. Tobias van Schneider has a very memorable portrait photo accompanied with bold typography and straightforward, concise facts.

 

 

4. ‘Mobile-Friendly’ Trend

Web usage patterns are changing and statistics cannot be ignored if you want to succeed in today’s market. Every third website visitor now uses a mobile device and websites that do not offer mobile friendly versions are causing an unpleasant experience and eventually losses money as users tend to abandon the website if it doesn’t render well on mobile device.

 “The number of people using mobile devices outstripped people on desktop computers in 2014.” – Jim Edwards, editor of Business Insider UK

Adopt a ‘mobile-friendly’ approach when designing or redesigning your website to ensure that you maximize your potential, and reach more of your target audience. This means you have to be brief, and focused on the content and performance which takes advantage of advanced features, like mobility, GPS, touch screen and more, that desktops aren’t able to offer.

In 2017, we’ll be seeing the continuous growth of mobile web design development and spectacular innovations based on the ever changing market behavior.

Examples of Mobile Friendly in Web Design

Newsweek http://www.newsweek.com/

Keep it simple is the design approach Newsweek has taken to form their mobile version with loads of white space and clean typography and accompanied by relevant imagery.

 

 

5. Modular Design (Grid Based) Trend

Modular or grid based design, also known as cards/tiles design approach, is not new in the web design scene, but it has started to get more traction as it is reusable and very ‘mobile-friendly’ with the tiles stacking nicely on different screens and forming a flexible layout that looks nice and clean on any screen size.

One of the best known examples of modular design is the tile-based design introduced by Microsoft in Windows 8. Now, many web apps like Pinterest, and Instagram, are using the grid based design very successfully.

Examples of Modular Design in Web Design

Anthony John Group http://www.anthonyjohngroup.com.au/

Anthony John Group has a clean, image based grid with just enough of white space to make things look balanced and trustworthy.

 

 

6. ‘Long Scroll’ (Single Page) Trend

It simply makes more sense from the user experience perspective – research shows that users love scrolling.

Scrolling is winning over clicking due to changing web browsing patterns. As mentioned earlier, mobile device usage growth has influenced the way websites are designed nowadays. With smaller screens and super natural touch scrolling movement, people prefer to scroll around instead of clicking on the links and waiting for the content to appear.

‘Long Scroll’ gained momentum a couple of years ago but now it has started to make even more sense and people seem to enjoy it as it presents huge chunks of information at once in a nicely designed step by step flow.

Examples of Single Page in Web Design

Apple https://www.apple.com/au/macbook/

Apple designed a super long single page to represent its new MacBook.

 

 

Spotify https://news.spotify.com/au/2014/12/03/2014-a-year-in-music/

One page layouts are popular among yearly reviews like Spotify’s Year in Music. Spotify’s Year in Music allows a natural timeline of the year, in an easy to browse manner, with a visual and interactive approach.

 

 

7. Flat Design Trend

Flat design has been quickly adopted by designers and big tech companies like Apple. Some of the advantages of using the new paradigm are that flat design forces designers to focus more on content, pick the right colors to help users navigate through designs, and use white space with care.

It is the state of a design that refrains from the use of intricacies. Simple flat designs turn away from the use of drop shadows, strokes and other design elements.

The reason behind this is that people now appreciate simple and easy to recognise styles. Also, with the advent of mobile browsing, where the screen space is limited, the use of simple images would maximize the use of the pixels on the screen. The minimalist style is also applied as the designers focus on wide spacing between icons, images and all the other elements of a web page or application.

Further, simple and flat images tend to load faster than intricately designed ones.

Examples of Flat Design in Web Design

Format https://www.format.com/

The main function of the flat design is to put emphasis on content while design has to serve as a communication tool. Format has a lovely combination of stunning image combined with sleek flat graphics in a balanced composition.

 

How can I Help?

When it comes to websites, I can offer you a rebate on the cost of having your own website designed, developed and hosted by a national company based right here in Melbourne. They develop websites from as little as $495, and offer a no obligation, no deposit service where they come to you and discuss your requirements. They will also host your website and provide you with an easy-to-use ‘Content Management System’ for you to make whatever changes you want later on, as well as free 24/7 support by phone and email.

I have negotiated rebates of 20% off their prices and all you need to do is contact me for further details and information.  For further information, contact me below:

David Haigh

(e)   da_haigh@bigpond.net.au
(w)  http://google.com/+DavidHaighAssociatesAshburton
(t) +61 (0)3 9885 7688
(m) +61 (0)412 550 020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About me

I have recently retired after 30 years consulting for corporate clients such as NAB, AXA, IOOF and AustralianSuper. My experience covers website design, social media and business strategies. I am now focussed on providing consulting services to small business for free.

My services are provided on a voluntary basis, free of charge, and with no obligation.

 

 

Search Engine Optimisation for better results

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the name given to how websites can improve search engine rankings. In search results, Google™ displays links to websites and pages it considers relevant and authoritative. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked) on the search results page, the more visitors a website will receive from the search engine's users. A friend of mine told me recently that she was very happy with her website but she was not getting any traffic to her site. I therefore Google’d the relevant search criteria her customers would be using and found that her website was not appearing on the first page of Google results – this is a typical SEO problem; incorrect or no relevant SEO on the website, compromising the website’s ranking!

Use the terms customers are using

The title tag is the single most important piece of SEO real estate on your site. A title tag can be as long as you want, but you only have about 63 characters before the search engine cuts it off. So use it wisely.

Since the title appears as the clickable link in the results pages, it has to be able to meet a couple of different demands.

Keyword rich

Customers type specific words into a keyword query and they expect the search engine to provide results that match their original query. The search engine looks at over 200 different signals to determine the relevance of any page against the keyword entered. Basically, it looks for where the keywords have matched content within the website.

The title tag on your website is therefore very important. You don't necessarily need the customers keyword in the title tag for it to come up in the search results, but it helps a great deal.

But what about the customer? What do they see? Let say a customer types "how to be beautiful" into the search engine and two results are displayed. One reads "How to Look Good and Feel Great" and another reads "How to Be Beautiful 5 steps (with video)”. Which of these two is more likely to be clicked by the customer?

It's entirely likely both pages address the same concerns, but only one uses the searched keyword - beautiful. More than likely, the second result will get far more clicks than the first, even if it is in a lower position in the results. Therefore, it’s essential to use keywords in your tags that your customers will be using (and looking for) to get good results.

Compelling

The next thing your title tag needs to be is compelling. We looked at how to make it more likely to be clicked simply by putting keywords in it, but that in itself is only part of the issue. Going back to our example above, if we put the first ‘non-keyword’ result ("How to Look Good and Feel Great") up against a third keyword rich headline of "Sexy and Beautiful, Today's Hottest Stars" which do you think will gain more clicks? My guess is the first one that doesn't use keywords because it is far more compelling and speaks more toward the searcher's intent. So in this situation the "Sexy and Beautiful, Today's Hottest Stars" headline is likely to rank higher, but will receive fewer clicks because it is not compelling.

The trick is to make sure that the title tag is both keyword rich and compelling. This will help move your site to the top of the rankings, but also ensure that visitors are more likely to click on to your site.

Common mistakes

Implementing your title tags properly is crucial to ensuring they are effective. There are a number of easy mistakes that you can make if you don't take the time to do it right. It's easy to want to blast through your title tags, especially if you have a lot of pages. But because your title tags are so important, you want to take care in developing them properly. Here are a few common issues:

Same on Every Page: Each page in your site is unique, or at least it should be. This means your title tags should be unique on each page as well. On a lot of sites you'll see the same title tag across all the pages "Welcome to My Site”, or something like that. That hardly describes the page at all. And show "Welcome to My Site” in the search results, and you're not likely to get any clicks. Go through the site and customise each title, ensuring it uniquely and accurately describes the content of the page.

Leading with Business Name: There are good reasons to have your business name present in your title tag, but that should not be the default. If you use your business name, be sure to think through the reasoning and make sure it's sound. The limitations of the title tag make using your business name something you only do with great care and consideration. I'll discuss this more in a bit.

List of Keywords: Wanting to get your keywords in the title tag makes it tempting to just try to throw as many in there as you possible can. "Beauty, Makeup, Makeovers, Diet, Healthy Skin" Sure that gets all your keywords in there but does nothing to make someone want to click on the result. This means that (gasp!) you have to use keywords sparingly, so you can also make the title something worth clicking on.

Lack of Description: Aside from getting your primary keywords in the title, and making it compelling, you also have to make sure the title tag provides enough of a description of the content to ensure it gets a targeted click. No sense having someone click into the site only to find the information on the page isn't what they expected. Make sure that the title describes the content in a compelling and keyword friendly way.

Business branded titles

So let's address using your business name in your title tags. As I said earlier, sometimes it’s wise but that shouldn't be the default position.

In general, you can place your business name either at the front or the rear of the title tag. My rule of thumb is that you don't want to put your business name at the front of your title tag unless you have a highly recognisable brand name that the visitor will know and will likely be a click-generator from the search results. If that's not the case then you simply don't want to give up that limited space in the tag (see Note below).

Branding at the rear of the title tag is a far better solution for most businesses. This helps moderately known or even unknown companies build brand name recognition. The downside of branding your title tags this way, is you are still using up valuable space that might otherwise be used making a keyword rich and compelling headline.

Note: that if the title goes too long, your business name will be cut off in the search results – you only have approx. 63 characters of space available in a title tag.

Most of the time you don't need your business name in your title tags at all, however there is one time when I would suggest leaving it off almost 90% of the time. This is on product pages. It's so crucial to get important product data into the title tag that there often simply isn't enough room for your business name. Again, I might make an exception for well-known business names, but default to showing product information first and foremost.

Conclusion

Having your business ranked highly in Google results, is more common sense than you think. Although the exact algorithms used by Goggle are not divulged, the tips above will help you get that Page 1 ranking over your competitors.

Interestingly, as of May 2015, mobile search on phones and tablets has finally surpassed desktop search. Google™ is developing and pushing mobile search as the future in all of its products, and responsive website design is now a key component of Goggle ranking. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that your website is ‘mobile-friendly’.

Professional web development companies have teams of designers that will build a ‘mobile-friendly’ website and ensure you get the best SEO (Google ranking) possible, and they can also host your website and provide 24/7 support within Australia, as well as give you a Content Management System to manage your own changes down the track.

If you are tempted to develop a website yourself, remember to get your SEO perfect for best results – and build a ‘mobile-friendly’ website for responsive design.

Good luck.

How can I Help?

When it comes to websites, I can offer you a rebate on the cost of having your own website designed, developed and hosted by a national company based right here in Melbourne. They develop websites from as little as $495, and offer a no obligation, no deposit service where they come to you and discuss your requirements. They will also host your website and provide you with an easy-to-use ‘Content Management System’ for you to make whatever changes you want later on, as well as free 24/7 support by phone and email.

I have negotiated rebates of 20% off their prices and all you need to do is contact me for further details and information.  For further information, contact me below: David Haigh

(e)   da_haigh@bigpond.net.au

(w)  www.DavidHaighAssociates.com.au
(t) +61 (0)3 9885 7688
(m) +61 (0)412 550 020

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About me

I have recently retired after 30 years consulting for corporate clients such as NAB, AXA, IOOF and AustralianSuper. My experience covers website design, social media and business strategies. I am now focussed on providing consulting services to small business.

My services are provided on a voluntary basis, free of charge, and with no obligation.

 

Creating a website for your business

Today, creating a website for your business is quite straight forward. In fact, it’s never been easier. Besides adding your content, all you need to do is organise three things: your domain name, your website hosting provider and your content management system.

Let me take the mystery out of each one and show you how it’s done:

You need a Domain Name

Also known as your website address or URL (universal resource locator), your domain name is your location on the internet. It’s where your customers find you, either by typing your address into an address bar, a search engine, or a link on another website. Registering a domain name is the first step in creating a website for your business.

Your domain name acts like your shop front in the online world.

The Australian Government has a useful page on registering a domain name here and you can use the following link to Domain Registration Services for lots of tips and advice on domain registration.

Technically, you never ‘own’ a domain name, you are only given the exclusive right to use the domain name for a set period (usually 2 years), which you can renew without question.

The domain name you choose will be assessed by an accredited industry registrar. You have (almost) full control over the domain name you choose for your small business. The main website naming guidelines are:

      You can’t use a domain name that’s already been taken by someone else

      You can’t use a domain name that incorporates a trademark
      You can’t register a site under an education (.edu), government (.gov), military (.mil) or other category extension without appropriate authorisation
      There are certain rules if you want to use .com.au (for example, you need to have an ABN)

A domain name costs money to purchase, and there are lots of organisations offering ‘cheap’ domains. However, you should register your domain name with an auDA* accredited registrar, officially certified as compliant with the auDA Information Security Standard (ISS).

The accredited registrar I have used before and recommend is Domain Registration Services.

It’s important that you take time choosing the best domain name. Once you select and purchase your domain name, you can’t change it. So choose wisely.

* .au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) is the Australian Government endorsed authority and regulatory body for the .au domain space.

You need a website Hosting Provider

Selecting a host provider is the second step in creating a website for your business. Every website must be hosted by a website hosting company. This host will ‘hold’ the content of your website for you and make it available to users on the internet. Put simply, a host provider holds all the information of your website (eg images and text) and makes it available for people when they enter your domain name in a search engine such as Google.

 

Your website hosting provider will store your website content on their servers.

Website hosting also costs money and costs can vary considerably. A bit unsure what to look for? I recommend you use an Australian based hosting provider with a guarantee of 24/7 local support, and two Australian providers of quality web hosting solutions are Digital Pacific and Melbourne IT.

Note: You don’t need to purchase your website hosting from the provider you buy your domain name from. You are free to choose any website host provider, except for Wix – see below.

You need a Content Management System

OK, you have a domain name and a host provider. All you need now is a program that helps you create and edit the content on your website. This program is called a Content Management System (or CMS for short) and is basically a website builder for you to build your website.

Selecting a CMS is the third and final step in creating a website for your business.

The common theme with these Content Management System’s is that they are all website builders that allow you to use templates, themes, plug-ins and apps to quickly build your website and link it to your hosting provider.

Some of the popular CMS’s are:

      Joomla!
      Shopify
      Big Cartel
      Wix, and
      WordPress

There are Pros and Cons with each of these website builders, so it is best to do some research of your own before you start.

Shopify is geared towards online stores that need Shopping Carts, and is quite expensive; Big Cartel, which is also geared for online stores, is much cheaper and better - a customer of mine who has used it, told me it is very easy to set up and use.

My recommendation would be to use either WordPress or Wix. They both come with Shopping Carts that can be added for free, if you need one (also referred to as eCommerce). For a really good ‘side-by-side’ comparison of WordPress and Wix, visit this site here.

WordPress has small business plans that cost up to $25 p/month and you pay separately for hosting; Wix has monthly and yearly plans that you pay for, but you must have your site hosted by Wix, which is included in the price – they have small business plans for $20 - $30 p/month.

WordPress itself does not natively have a shopping cart and you need to add a third-party plugin, which is normally free (WP-ecommerce is a good example).

Wix small business plans can add a shopping cart, also for free (called Wix Stores).

Shopify is more expensive than Wix and WordPress because of more extensive features that come with it; a medium size plan with Big Cartel costs $25 p/month.

Summary: To create a website for your Business

So just to summarise, if you’re creating a website for your business you will need to:

      Purchase a domain name (I recommend Domain Registration Services)

      Arrange website hosting (I recommend Digital Pacific or Melbourne IT)

      Install a Content Management System (I recommend Wix or WordPress)

This may sound scary, but to create a website yourself is relatively straight forward if you’re ‘tech savvy’. What’s more important, however, is to consider how much time it will cost you to figure everything out.

If you build your own website, you will have to deal with all the technical aspects of things, such as get your website linked to your host, worry about security updates, design your own website, learn how to populate your site with content and so forth.

Basically, you’ll need to figure out how to build a website from scratch and this can be time consuming and challenging if you are not technical.

For more information on creating a great website for your business, with ‘mobile-friendly’ responsive design, see this post elsewhere on my Blog ‘Website design trends’.

Conclusion: DIY or Made to Measure

If you are particularly 'tech savvy', you can create your own website (DIY) using the advice above. 

However, by the time you have mastered the templates and learned the skills, you will have been better to leave it to the experts.

Website design and development by professional web development companies is so cheap and fast these days that they are the best way to go. Professional web development companies have teams of designers that can create the perfect website for your business, and they can also host your website and provide 24/7 support within Australia, as well as give you a Content Management System to manage your own changes down the track.

Costs can vary from $995 for a ‘mobile-friendly’ website, including shopping cart, up to approx. $1,695 for something with the lot.

Do not be tempted to have something developed overseas, as you will always be disappointed by the quality, especially in design, and simple issues like spelling and grammar. And, when you try and get it hosted in Australia, there will be problems with future changes down the track since the original developer will have disappeared and there is no one around that can support it.

If you are tempted to use a friend who thinks they ‘know the ropes’, remember to ask your friend for two important things – a ‘mobile-friendly’ website for responsive design, and a platform for you to make changes down the track – preferable using one of the common CMS’s listed above.

Good luck.

How can I Help?

When it comes to websites, I can offer you a rebate on the cost of having your own website designed, developed and hosted by a national company based right here in Melbourne. ‘Mobile-friendly’ websites start as little as $495, and the company offers a no obligation, no deposit service where they come to you and discuss your requirements. They also host your website and provide you with an easy-to-use ‘Content Management System’ for you to make whatever changes you want later on, as well as free 24/7 support by phone and email.

I have negotiated rebates of 20% off their prices and all you need to do is contact me for further details and information.

For further information, contact me below:

David Haigh

(e)   da_haigh@bigpond.net.au

(w)  http://google.com/+DavidHaighAssociatesAshburton

(t) +61 (0)3 9885 7688
(m) +61 (0)412 550 020

 

About me

I have recently retired after 30 years consulting for corporate clients such as NAB, AXA, IOOF and AustralianSuper. My experience covers website design, social media and business strategies. I am now focussed on providing consulting services to small business for free.

My services are provided on a voluntary basis, free of charge, and with no obligation.